


Three Friends

by Draco_Shion



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Post-Canon, The Great Fódlan Bakeoff (Fire Emblem), but yeah you can also interpret it as completely platonic tbh, i just wanted to write about these three bc they're adorable & Marianne deserves love, not the first fic I've written by a long shot but the first I've ever posted anywhere, the setup is basically MariRaph paired ending with elements of MariNatz paired ending, this was meant to be MariRaphNatz poly trio but the RaphNatz ended up not coming across I think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_Shion/pseuds/Draco_Shion
Summary: Over a year after they went their separate ways when the war they found themselves pulled into finally came to an end, three of Byleth's former students from the Golden Deer house reunite when Marianne and Ignatz visit Raphael's new inn. (Set in Verdant Winds canon and heavily inspired by Marianne and Raphael's canonical paired ending.)
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Ignatz Victor, Marianne von Edmund/Raphael Kirsten, Marianne von Edmund/Raphael Kirsten/Ignatz Victor
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Three Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Great Fodlan Bakeoff 2 with the prompts flowers, reunion, courage, sunrise/sunset and trust.

“So. We’re nearly there now.” Marianne smiled shyly at her companion, beside her in the carriage.  
“Yes.” Ignatz nodded. “Honestly, I still can’t believe I’m going to see Raphael again. I suppose it’s been less than two years, but so much has happened. Doesn’t it feel longer?”  
“Yes, I think I know what you mean.” she agreed. She observed her friend for a moment, then said “Are you nervous?”  
For a moment, Ignatz seemed as though he was going to try to deny it, then he sighed and dropped his shoulders. “Yeah, kind of - I know it’s ridiculous, Raphael is the easiest person to talk to in the world, but he doesn’t know I’m coming, and I guess I don’t really know who he is now?”  
“No, that’s understandable. But I know Raphael would always be overjoyed to see you.” Marianne said, giving him an encouraging smile. The two of them, Ignatz and Marianne, had only reunited a few days prior, meeting by chance when Ignatz’s journey as a travelling artist took him into Edmund territory. Marianne had thanked the Goddess many times over for the serendipity of her running into Ignatz shortly before her planned visit to Raphael at the inn he'd recently opened: it was an ideal opportunity for all three of them to reunite, however briefly, and the thought warmed her heart. Her time as a student at Garreg Mach truly felt a lifetime away now, but some bonds would never be broken.  
Ignatz spoke up again, "To be honest, I think it feels different to me now, because Raphael has, yknow, a 'real' job - something our families are proud of - and I don't. But I know that's just me being silly."  
"Your art is a gift to the world, Ignatz."  
"Thank you", he said, blushing a little.  
"And I might be wrong, but Raphael seems like he never really changes - no matter what happens, he's still the same old Raphael, with the same smile…"  
"Yes, that's definitely true!" Ignatz said, laughing. "He never lets anything get him down. You know, it's funny that it was me who was nervous about seeing someone, and you who talked confidence into me. You've changed, Marianne. In a good way."  
Marianne looked away shyly, but she was smiling. Still, Ignatz wasn't sure whether he'd said the right thing, but he was spared from having an opportunity to worry about that because the carriage driver called out "Here we are, sir and ma'am, Mr Kirsten's inn." (Ignatz felt he would never get used to hearing Raphael referred to as 'Mr Kirsten' - it reminded him of Raphael's father.)  
The two of them scrambled to get out of the carriage as soon as it came to a stop. The first thing Ignatz noticed was that the freshly painted sign hanging over the door of the handsome building before them read "THE WINGED INN & TAVERN" with a blue bird beneath it. Then that door burst open and Raphael appeared, beaming, before yelling "OH! Ignatz! And Marianne! HELLO!", and before Ignatz knew it, Raphael had run over and swept both of them up into a hug.

From the moment they reunited, it was as though the trio had never been apart. Marianne was, of course, right, Raphael had barely changed - his hair was a little neater and it was amazing how different he looked wearing casual clothes rather than armour or uniform, but as for his personality he was if anything even more positive, confident and big-hearted than Ignatz remembered him. He felt almost as though he'd forgotten just how much he loved Raphael's company, and Marianne seemed over the moon as well, especially as the first thing Raphael did (after expressing how surprised and happy was that Ignatz had visited too) was proudly show her why his establishment was called The Winged Inn.  
"I thought of all the little birds out here that might be goin' hungry, so I thought I'd feed them too," he said, gesturing to a bird-table in the little garden area behind the inn. Even as they watched, a speckled brown bird flitted down, pecked at the seeds for a moment, and flew off with one in its beak.  
“Oh, he’s taking it to feed his babies!” said Marianne, delighted.  
“Yeah? That’s great! Did he tell you that, or are you guessing?”  
“Um, yeah, I know because of - the thing where I understand animals sometimes.”  
“Huh?” said Ignatz, who had never heard of this before.  
“Oh! I suppose I’ve never told you about that. Um, I’ll explain later.” Marianne said, apologetically.  
“And hey, Marianne, look, I thought you might like these,” said Raphael, leading them over to a big tree at the back corner of the space. Nestled in its roots were a few little white bell-shaped flowers.  
“Oh, lily-of-the-valley!” said Marianne, and got down on the ground to look at them more closely.  
“Aw, they’re beautiful.” said Ignatz.  
“Hey, it’s just a couple of em, but I wanted to grow em here because, well,” Raphael hesitated very uncharacteristically, “they remind me of you, Marianne, ‘cus I know they’re your favourite.”  
“Oh-!” she gasped, then, to Ignatz’s amazement, stood up, actually looked Raphael in the eyes, and said “Thank you. They’re lovely.” Ignatz was hit by a rush of pride at how much more confident and happy Marianne seemed to be now compared to the withdrawn, despondent girl he had first met at the Officer’s Academy.  
“I’m sorry I don’t really have anything for ya, ‘Natz,” Raphael said, turning to him, “but it really is a treat to see you again too, buddy! This is like, the best day ever, and it ain’t even my birthday!” Ignatz laughed, and his friends both laughed too, and he felt profoundly thankful to be alive and experiencing such a beautiful moment with his very favourite people. The struggle through the war had been more than worth it for moments like this.

They ate dinner together, courtesy of Raphael of course, who had closed the inn specially for that evening so that he could catch up with his friends. It took Ignatz back to mealtimes at Garreg Mach, and made him miss Byleth, with whom he had spent so many of them - but of course, their old professor was ruling the entire of Fodlan now. It was strange how things had turned out, something none of them could ever have predicted when their year at the Officers Academy began. But here they were, three of the Golden Deer class back together at last, like old times and yet so different in some ways - mostly good ways.  
There was so much to talk about - Ignatz’s travels and what he’d been painting, Marianne’s lesson in diplomacy from her adoptive father, and of course the Winged Inn itself; and so the time passed very quickly. The sun had almost slipped below the horizon entirely before Ignatz looked up and realised that the sky was lit up in shades of purple and orange, upon which he jumped out of his chair and took the others outside to admire the sunset.  
“Oh, this is just like that time back when we were at the academy, and you took me to see the sunset, Ignatz!” said Marianne, as the three of them stood in the rapidly cooling evening air.  
“Wow, you remember that?”  
“Of course! I promised I would. It was one of the moments that, um… started to help me see that life is worth living, you know?” Marianne seemed embarrassed now, looking at another bird that had landed on the bird-table instead of at either of her friends, but she pressed on. “To be honest, when I was younger, I… couldn’t see past the fact that I have this Crest - do you remember? Later, during the war, there were rumours of a monster in the forest, and Byleth brought some of us to investigate, and I knew it was - he was Maurice, the first holder of the Crest I have. You saved my life, Raphael, when he attacked me.”  
“Yeah. Of course.” said Raphael, with uncharacteristic seriousness.  
“So, I always thought this Crest would turn me into a monster too one day, or that it would bring terrible misfortune on anyone around me - I thought I was just a problem, that it would be better if I didn’t exist. So, I prayed to the Goddess every day that she would… take me.”  
“Oh, Marianne…” said Ignatz softly.  
“But I’m fine now,” she said, straightening up her stance a little and turning to smile at him briefly, “and it’s because all of you - my classmates, my allies, and the Professor of course - you cared about me, and loved me, even though I have this Crest. Ignatz, you reminded me that there are so many beautiful things in the world, and now I’m ashamed of myself for forgetting that for so long because all I could see was the burden of my Crest. And Raphael…” she shook her head and laughed, turning to him, “you were always so sweet, and so silly, and when you caught me talking to a bird that first time you didn’t think I was a freak. You thought it was amazing, and that helped me begin to see this Crest as a gift rather than a curse. I owe you both so much.”  
“You don’t owe me anything, Marianne. I'm just really glad you're happier now. You deserve to be happy." said Raphael, looking down at her with an almost wistful expression.  
"Yes, absolutely, I feel the same. It’s really brave of you to have kept going through everything, Marianne. You should feel proud of being able to get through it, not ashamed of how you felt in the past.” said Ignatz.  
“Um, you really think so?” she said, uncertainly, and he nodded. She continued, “I’ve never really told anyone about it before, but I wanted you both to know, although it’s very overdue…”  
“Hey, no worries, old friend. All that’s behind you now, right? And now you got your whole life ahead of ya. We all have. I’ve got this inn, Ignatz’s got his painting, and I reckon you could do just about anything you wanted to, Marianne.” She smiled up at him. Suddenly Raphael exclaimed “Woah, look at that bird!”, as a crow-sized, iridescent bird landed in the tree that the lily-of-the-valley was growing under, looked at the bird table for a moment, but then flew off. It was difficult to tell what colour it was in the rapidly fading dusk light, but Ignatz thought its feathers had gleamed dark blue, maybe even purple. Raphael continued, “I’ve never seen one like that before! What a shame he didn’t come to the table.”  
“She’s shy, but I think she’ll come back another time.” said Marianne.  
“Great!” said Raphael. “It’s real handy that you can understand birds, you know.”  
“Hey, um, Marianne…” Ignatz hesitated, heart suddenly racing, but decided to go ahead and say what had been on his mind, "Did you ever realise that one of the beautiful things in the world is you?"  
This seemed to take her off guard, as she blushed and giggled, her eyes shining in the last of the day's sunlight. "Um, I don't know what to say to that, but, thank you!"  
Raphael added, "It's true, Marianne, you're really pretty, and one of the kindest people I've ever met too." and then looked uncertain for a moment and glanced over at Ignatz, who gave him a smile and a nod to say 'no jealousy here'. Marianne, meanwhile, had dissolved under the unexpected compliments and simply said “Oh, you're both so wonderful. I wish I could stay here with you forever.”  
“You’re welcome to, as far as I’m concerned!” said Raphael, without hesitation.  
“Really? Um, I’m not sure what my adopted father would say about that, but I’ll consider it…” Marianne said, and laughed.  
“We should definitely stay in touch at least, this time. It’d be a shame to waste this chance reunion we got to have.” said Ignatz. “We can talk about how long we’re staying here and stuff tomorrow though, right?”  
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be opening the inn, though.”  
“We’ll help you open up, won’t we?” he said, looking over at Marianne.  
“Yes, of course! I want to help out in any way I can while I’m here.”  
“Hey, thanks, you two! I could do with a helping hand for once.” said Raphael happily. “Now let’s go back inside already, it’s getting kinda cold.”  
The three friends turned and filed back into the inn, unsure of exactly what the future would hold, but determined to enjoy their time together here and now, and safe in the knowledge that they each had far more choice over their fate and chance of happiness than they’d ever thought possible before the war had ended.

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, Marianne mentioning that Raphael saved her life when Maurice/The Black Beast attacked her is a reference to something that actually happened in my game. I had Raphael as Marianne's adjutant and he blocked the beast's follow-up attack that would otherwise have killed her. I've never forgotten it :)
> 
> I can't believe I'm finally posting a fic and it's because I last minute, spontaneously decided to write for an event. Frankly the concept of random people on AO3 seeing my work is terrifying, but I'm kind of proud of this (but definitely not of the shitty title or summary haha).


End file.
